ededic
Gold Member
Pictures would help the armchairing considerably.
Crawl space encapsulation?
- Thread starter Gomer pyle
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Gomer pyle
Silver Member
A little history behind the house (as I've been told), the house was moved here in '93, and then was renovated in '17. I know the foundation has been here for 25 years. The house sets on the highest point of my property. I'm being literal when I say all I have to do is dig down 12" to get to bed rock. I have a place outside(water cutoff in a underground box, box sets on top of solid rock) and when it rains heavy, the box is full of water to the top. So, I believe some of the water is seeping through the block and some actually just coming up through the ground. I climbed under the house a few months ago to move TV lines for the wife and found the standing water, so I know this has been going on for years, I trenched to the lowest point of the house and added a French drain. I will try to get some pics this evening if I get off work in time. Should I open my vents? I closed them to keep pipes from freezing.
Dont panic, but you gotta get things dry down there before mold gets a foot hold. I fully suspect the foundation drain is either plugged up or non-existent. I would dig up and repair or install a new perimeter drain first (inside or outside). Get things dry, then you can go back and see what else needs to be done. Insulation and duct work can be dried out, but it will be a fairly slow process. This whole thing will take a considerable amount of time, but not a considerable amount of money if you tackle it one piece at a time. Even better if you can do the majority of the work yourself. Mold remediation (if necessary) is time consuming but can be a DIY project too.
I would probably put a fan or two down there to blow the damp air out.
Footing Drain Pipe | Building America Solution Center
How To Remove Mold: Mold Remediation — The Family Handyman
You say the house is at the high point, and bedrock/ledge is a foot down. Do you have enough slope on the property to run water from a perimeter drain set right at/on the bedrock (either inside or outside the house) and still slope it down and out to daylight somewhere further away from the house? If your property slopes less than a foot then you are probably looking at some form of pump. Do any of the surrounding properties slope away enough that water brought to the surface have somewhere to go? If everything around you is higher you are kind of stuck.
Are some or all of the neighboring properties above yours? Could be uphill groundwater following the rock surface downhill. At worst, you have some sort of artesian spring...
Are some or all of the neighboring properties above yours? Could be uphill groundwater following the rock surface downhill. At worst, you have some sort of artesian spring...
nikdfish
Platinum Member
Our place had crawl space humidity issues during the summer. No obvious wet spots or soggy ground, just tremendous amounts of condensation on the HVAC system sheet metal. Mold was beginning to show on some joists. Open foundation vents did not help as humidity is pretty much an all summer thing in NC.
We did the encapsulation for the full crawl space area + a blower to pull a negative pressure from the covered ground (think radon abatement). It was a pricey install but eliminated the condensation issue. Humidity now tracks pretty closely with humidity in the living spaces. A side effect is the HVAC guys really like the work space around the system now
. Since our "crawl space" actually has 6' head space in some areas, the encapsulation has made for a nice clean storage space for some boxed items.
The blower has died a couple of times, but each time it turned out to be something I could fix. First time was just a piece of resin trash from manufacturing that broke loose & jammed the motor, the second time was a capacitor that cooked & a replacement had it up & running again.
We did the encapsulation for the full crawl space area + a blower to pull a negative pressure from the covered ground (think radon abatement). It was a pricey install but eliminated the condensation issue. Humidity now tracks pretty closely with humidity in the living spaces. A side effect is the HVAC guys really like the work space around the system now
. Since our "crawl space" actually has 6' head space in some areas, the encapsulation has made for a nice clean storage space for some boxed items.The blower has died a couple of times, but each time it turned out to be something I could fix. First time was just a piece of resin trash from manufacturing that broke loose & jammed the motor, the second time was a capacitor that cooked & a replacement had it up & running again.
Handloader109
Gold Member
The inspector says you have adequate drainage, but if that were true, you wouldn't have standing water. Water is coming into that area from somewhere. Better drains around perimeter. If walls to the bedrock, then inside the crawlspace and break through to drain.
Budweiser John
Platinum Member
We solved a similar problem by installing 4” perforated drain tile around the permiter walls on the inside and terminating the down stream end some distance from the house.
We then covered the entire crawl space with 4 to 6” of pea stone and on top of the pea stone laid a heavy plastic vapor barrier and taped the seams. The vapor barrier extends up the permiter walls about 6”. The permiter walls were then covered with 2” styrofoam insulation board that overlaps the vapor barrier and is glued to the cement blocks.
The pea stone acts as a drainage plain and although a huge gut busting project to bucket the stone into the crawl space, it solved solved the problem.
As an aside, to reach the far corners in the crawl space we cominderred my son’s snow saucer and by putting a rope on each handle were able to put a 5 gallon bucket of pea stone on it with the guy on the inside pulling it to the dump site and the guy doing the filling pulling it back. Beat the heck out of trying to carry a full bucket while waddling along on one’s hands and knees.
B. John
We then covered the entire crawl space with 4 to 6” of pea stone and on top of the pea stone laid a heavy plastic vapor barrier and taped the seams. The vapor barrier extends up the permiter walls about 6”. The permiter walls were then covered with 2” styrofoam insulation board that overlaps the vapor barrier and is glued to the cement blocks.
The pea stone acts as a drainage plain and although a huge gut busting project to bucket the stone into the crawl space, it solved solved the problem.
As an aside, to reach the far corners in the crawl space we cominderred my son’s snow saucer and by putting a rope on each handle were able to put a 5 gallon bucket of pea stone on it with the guy on the inside pulling it to the dump site and the guy doing the filling pulling it back. Beat the heck out of trying to carry a full bucket while waddling along on one’s hands and knees.
B. John
Yes,it is. The sled was a rather clever helper, I liked that one.
dmottv
Bronze Member
A friend has a camp in VT with a similar situation: ledge at shallow depths, 1 to 2 feet, the soil is generally wet and saturates during rain events. The camp is on a bit of a slope. The groundwater and rain runs along the top of the ledge underground. He trenched down to the ledge on the uphill side and around both sides to an outflow downslope, laid perimeter drain pipe and filled with stone. That has solved some of the problem. The soil inside the perimeter trench area and under the camp is still somewhat wet, I suspect it is traveling through fissures in the ledge. Being a seasonal camp on a pier foundation, he does not have as tough an issue as you though. I think the next part of a solution is to grade a slope under the camp and layer with a depth of stone to act as a drain plane out the lower end. That is a slick plastic sled/toboggan idea! Good luck with it.
Budweiser John
Platinum Member
ddbackhoe, thanks. Necessary is the mother of invention. No need to work any harder than necessary.